


[messy meta] uncle iroh is gay-coded

by orphan_account



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon-Typical Homophobia, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:20:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23815252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: please don't take this as if i actually believe it. it's deliberately wild and subjective. i wrote it in 15 minutes in a group chat for funsies.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	[messy meta] uncle iroh is gay-coded

**Author's Note:**

> please don't take this as if i actually believe it. it's deliberately wild and subjective. i wrote it in 15 minutes in a group chat for funsies.

he was once regarded as a great general, a (masculine) leader in war. now ~~(after he’s been outed)~~ he’s had a Great Failing. his own niece says he’s not “a real general” (a real man). zhao openly scorns him, and he’s consistently mocked and underestimated. why? because he makes jasmine tea, he doesn’t enjoy fighting, he’s “soft” - he’s no longer the hypermasculine ideal of a war leader or a crown prince. we never see him behave romantically towards a woman unless it’s so save his nephew’s life (the scene with june was gross and so o.o.c even people who don’t like him admit they don’t count it as canon) - we see that he had a son who he loved dearly, but nothing about a wife, past or present, nor even his son’s mother. he wears a pink bathrobe and unapologetically enjoys “feminine” things like soaking in hot springs. he’s not an Outdoorsman - his knowledge of plants is about tea, not what’s an actual foodsource. when he’s imprisoned, the one guard who’s kind to him is a woman in a stereotypically masculine job - they both break out of gender roles. furthermore, the white lotus is a group of men who meet in secret, are against prejudice, and are symbolised by a flower (feminine) - again, iroh’s motif seems to be a white flower in some way or other, his official portrait in the new book ‘legacy of the fire nation’ has him surrounded by jasmine flowers. we never see evidence that any of these men have romantic involvements with women, except pakku, who was rejected decades ago and as far as we’re aware has never sought out another wife. iroh likes to sing and play music. he’s seen as “eccentric” and “clumsy” and “kooky” as well as “soft” - all ways that one could describe a flamboyant gay man. indeed, the way iroh is “clumsy” as a distraction to help zuko -

in fact speaking of zuko, he is explicitly the gentler kinder parental influence to the harsh cruelty of his father. while it is true that iroh is zuko’s real father, the nurturing role he fills is closer to the stereotype of a supportive mother than supportive father. once again, iroh places himself in “feminine” roles, and shows no shame about this. when he was corrected after misgendering smellerbee, he instantly apologises and affirms her identity (“it’s a wonderful name for a young girl”). this shows that he’s aware of queer rights, and supports them. in fact, in 'turf wars,’ it’s introduced to canon that sozin’s line of oppressive firelords also attempted to stifle and/or subdue gay relationships. iroh is somebody committed to pushing back against this same regime of sozin’s, then his father’s, then his brother’s. however, he remained under the radar with his resistance up until he saw zuko mutilated by his father. i posit that, while everyone was aware he had gay traits and tendencies, he was still attempting to maintain what vestige of a closet hadn’t yet been stripped from him. however, when he saw zuko hurt so badly by his own father for also being “soft” (punishing a lack of “masculinity”), he realised that he could no longer in good conscience stand by. from then on he has acted consistently as zuko’s mentor and protector, and tried his hardest to help zuko see that his father’s ideas about what is strong and what is weak are incorrect. also of note is that, even in the credits, he is known as “uncle,” before even his own name, and certainly before any of his titles. back in the early 1900s in great britain, when gay relationships led to prison terms, older gay men who provided mentorship, community leadership, and safety were often referred to as “auntie,” a mere cosmetic shift in gendering. 


End file.
